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In recognition of its contribution to building the African economy and championing sustainable banking, Africa’s largest retail bank, Access Bank PLC, clinched multiple awards at the 2021 Brandcom Award Ceremony which held recently in Ikeja, Lagos.

The award categories which the bank won were “SME Friendly Bank Brand of The Year”, “Sustainability Team of The Year (Financial Services)” and “Best Brand in Sustainability”. In addition to these, the bank’s Group Head of Corporate Communications & External Affairs, Amaechi Okobi, was recognised as the “Most Outstanding Corporate Communications Professional (Financial Services)” and its Head of Sustainability, Omobolanle Victor-Laniyan, was awarded the “Most Outstanding Sustainability Professional of the Year”.

“At Access Bank, our vision is to be the world’s most respected African bank. In alignment with our vision, we have embedded sustainability into our business operations and practices,” said Ms Victor-Laniyan about the bank’s multiple wins. “This has led us to create sustainability-led services and initiatives that cater to the varying needs of individuals and corporations. On the SME frontier, we continuously support macro-finance institutions that support SMEs and entrepreneurs.”

She said that in all segments of society, Access Bank has introduced workable, sustainable solutions that have begun to yield tremendous results. In recognition of the business opportunities in the use of clean cookstoves as an alternative to using wood or charcoal for cooking, Access Bank partnered with SME Funds to implement the Green Social Entrepreneurship Program.

The program is focused on empowering entrepreneurs with the clean cooking stove technology, thereby safeguarding public health and protecting the environment. The technology makes it economically feasible to convert waste-based biomass to biofuel. The stove makes use of bio-gels, which are made from water hyacinth, biocremol, caustic soda, fragrance, and chlorophyll.

Through this program, Access Bank said it has empowered 238 entrepreneurs, 70 percent of whom are women, with easy access to start-up capital. The program has been able to alleviate poverty, while mitigating climate change, according to the bank.

Amongst other impacts the bank has reported under the program, the empowered entrepreneurs have so far reported returns of over N15.7 million through the production and distribution of over 7,500 litres of bio-gel. Additionally, 598 households and about 2,100 beneficiaries have had access to low-cost cooking fuel and stoves, leading to the displacement of 287 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MTCO2 Eq.) in emissions.